Telecommunications in Brazil!

Happy birthday Gessica!!!!

After a long weekend passed through beaches, cultural visits and a lot of fun, finally monday has arrived. Motivated as usual, we start our new day with the first lesson about telecomunication in Brazil. We had a very interesting lecture with professor Carlos Alberto Malicher Vastos. We had an overview of the evolution of telephone, internet, wireless and mobile and fix phone. It was interesting because we didn't know anything about this object even if it is an important part of our daily life.


At 12 pm we went to one of the most modern and industrial area in Rio de Janeiro and then we had lunch in a very nice restaurant called "Ecclettico". In the afternoon we visited the wonderful and technological offices of TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile in Brazil). Tim arrived in Brazil in 1997 and the chief of marketing explained us the path and the growth of this company in the last 12 years. Nowadays Tim represents the third telecomunication company in Brazil with about 40 millions customers. At 4.30 pm we had an appointment in the monitoring room ( network management center NMC) in order to admire the incredible IT system. There were a lot of monitor to check performance, traffic and the quality of service.



At 6.00 pm storm arrived, as usual, and we came back to Niteròi!
It was a very intensive day because it finished with a work for thursday.

Good night and see you tomorrow at 8.00 am !!!!!!

Luca&Marta

Our weekend in Brazil!

After a long and hard week of lessons, homework and visits, we had a fantastic week end, our first brazilian one.
All of us were so happy about that and full of enthusiasm. We really wanted to have some time to the beach and we planned to go to the most famous beach of Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana. We reached the beach at about 12 in the morning all brave and happy for the sun that was not supposed to be that day. We enjoyed so much the time there but we didn’t care enough about the strong tropical sun of Rio and after a couple of hours all of us were looking for some shelters under the palms.
Then we decided to go to one of the most famous attractions of Rio de Janeiro: Pan de Azucar.

The view was amazing, and we realized how big this city is…. Incredible!


Our Sunday, instead, was dedicated to the shopping and the special location for it was the hippie market at Ipanema beach. We spent there about two hours; there were so many things to see and we noticed that we like spending reais for souvenirs.
A pit stop at Ipanema beach were just few of us, the brave ones, decided to lay under the sun another bit.
At about 5 pm we took for the first time the metro of Rio to reach Santa Teresa where we took a nice train full of people, holding themselves even outside, to go up towards the nice quartier. The journey was nice, we saw a party in a square, pubs, shops, bars and wonderful colonial houses with a beautiful sight of Rio.

We really had a fantastic week end, we got home tired, burned by the sun but really really happy. It was important for us because we discovered more things about Brazilian lifestyle, that we can understand not only from the interesting university lessons we are having but also through the personal participation in it.



Anna&Federica

venerdì 22 gennaio 2010

Our first brasilian weekend begins...

Yesterday morning the breakfast room was empty and this was the consequence of too much food the night before.... The savory and abound meat's dishes and also some delicious pieces of sushi e sashimi, had interfered with the sleep of someone. Our suggest for future turists in Brazil is therefore to be aware when,during their trip, they will discover several restaurants where is possible eat a lot of dishes of meat with fix prize...
Anyway, at 9 we were in our class ready for daily lectures that was about the Brazilian legal system; professor Alexandre Veronese explained us the long process to reach their new legal model throught the new constitution and the difference compared to the italian legal model. It was interesting even if our minds were concentrated on our first friday night.
To have lunch we went another time to eat kilos food in a very fast way because we had an appointment at the technological park in Rio. It was a great surprise have visited this biggest area and have discussed with a manager about the importance of that structure and about how they try to improve development of the brazilian enterprises. Then he showed us two firms that work inside the park and we had compared the different work environment, even if technological and advanced, with italian firms. After that we came back to our hotel to change dress and get ready for the night!



Unfortunately weather changed suddenly and we have been blocked hours in the bus before reaching the destination: was very difficult drive under the rain, in the traffic, and with some streets totally flood. Anyway someone was able to gladden everyone with discourses about men and lovely relationship and was funny see the strong female coalition (we were only two men...uff). The place where we had dinner was very particular in terms of interior decoration and after ordered a little bit of "light food" we began to dance samba ( o better we tried to dance...) thanks to live samba group and singer until we decided to come back.
At the beginnig our program was very different but an intensive week, tiredness and some upsets stomach convinced us to desert strongest entertaiment intentions. It was only our fifth day and Brasil has in store surprises for us!

BOA NOITE and stay tuned

Luca&Gessica

A Day in Niteroi

The day begin as usually but not for everybody...room 104 is without water and with 30 degrees outside is a really good condition!

At 9 am, punctual as usual , we assist at the lesson in UFF with professor Marc Aurelio Cabral Pinto who explaines to us the historical path of Brasil from XV century until now. The professor is really passionate about the subject and he trasmits this feeling to us.
At lunch time we experience again the "PESOU PRATO" and after eating kilos of food (fried chicken, farofa, fajoada...) we sunbath before start another lesson.


Professor Maria Helena shows the importance of patents and how the intellectual property is fundamental for the development of a country; the three houres go by very quickly thanks to the italian explanation and the huge amount of questions.
The time of the duty finishes at 5.30pm and the free time takes over...walking from the hotel to Sao Francisco area we can see the amazing view , in particular Cristo Rendentor, Pao de Sucar , the Museum of Moder Art and the undulating profile of Rio de Janeiro.


Finally we arrive at the restaurant, Porçao is waiting for us with all kinds of culinary delights all accompanied with caipirinha and mojito!!!
Today we also say goodbye to Valentina and we welcome Silvio Troisi.
Keep in touch , beijos from Niteroi

BOA NOITE A TODOS

Marta & Federica

From the shipyard to the beach!!!

Today we woke up with a shining sun, no clouds, no wind, and no more tropical rain...!!!!
We love Brazil!
The lesson of this morning was about the Brazilian pharmaceutical system of innovation. We were a little bit sleepy because of the few hours of sleeping (we are very diligent students and we do our homeworks at night!), but the interesting lesson gave us the possibility of learning something new about the pharmaceutical field... Brazilian companies are specialized in the production of general drugs, we didn't know it but thanks to the knowledge and the kindness of professor Julia Paranhos even today we have enrich our awareness about Brazilian economy.
So it's arrived the time of launch!!! Finally we tried the typical Brazilian way of launch. So there is a buffet where you can take every thing you want and then they weight your full dish, and at the end you pay refer to the weight. Brazilian food is really very good!!!
After launch we have taken our bus and reached Technolabor in Sao Gonçalo.
It's a company specialized in the production of steel products for the oil and gas, refinery, nuclear and naval industries. Its main customer is Petrobras, the second petroleum company in Latin America and the fifth mondial strenght. They offered us something good to eat and to drink ( typical Brazilian fruit juices which are very tasty!!!) After that they showed us a power point presentation about the company; it was like a lesson where they let us understand the functioning of such an important production. Than they led us trough a direct visit of the shipyard.



It was very hot and what was impressing is that workers were able to work standing the suffocating hot.
At the end we deserved a dip in the sea and a wonderful sunset on the beach of Niteroi!





Gessica e Ivana

A really really full day!!!

We started at 9 with a very interactive lesson about a general overview on the brazilian economy. Professor Paulo Pfeil clearly explained us the main strenghts and weaknesses of this enormous country. First of all he gave us some numbers, comparing Brasil to other countries and in particular to Italy.
He analysed the big deal of brazilian economy, the inflaction, showing us the different governative politics, which tried and try to solve the problem, with quite good results. We discover also that 20% of brazilian population has an italian ancient, due to the migration between the XIX and the XX century.

After the lesson we came out under the tropical sun and we reached the restaurant just behind the Uff University, theatre of a hilarious misunderstanding... we tried to ask for some bread...but the waiters didn´t speak english...so we tried to pronouciate the word in portuguese, that is pão. The waiters were shocked! Actually we pronounced pão as pau! We leave you the burden of translation...



In the afternoon we visited the Judicial Cultural Centre, where we could see the old room of the Brazilian Supreme Court. They guided us in a tour of the palace and of the art exibition there. They also explaine dus the origins and the inspiration of the Brasilian laws: we discovered that the brazilian labour law derivates from the italian Carta dei Lavoratori!

Not yet tired we decided to climb the Corcovado in order to reach the statue of the Christ...




We took the train through the tropical jungle populated by monkeys (that´s what our guides said...) and we reached the top, where the photo session began...
the panorama was amazing, but a surprise was waiting for us...



A tropical storm suddenly began!! We ran to the train station fighting to find a seat and hoping to reach safe and sound the hotel.

We got it!

Federica e Valeria

First day in Brasil: a day of profound contraddictions

First day in Brasil: a day of profound contraddictions.
First in the morning we attended a lession about Business developement, in particular Brasilian's incubators.
A professor from UFF and two brilliant students explained us the chances given by incubators' network in Brasil in order to develop a business in the most productive way, without wasting time or resources and profiting of gouvernamental funds.
In fact, Brasilian incubator system works mainly with the money provided by the Ministery of Technology and Developement and gives a chance to many youngesters to develop their own business, once they have found the right product to put on the market.

After a brief lunch at the Fashion Mall we split up into two groups to enter one of the biggest Favelas in Rio: Rocinha.
The guides who led us into the discovery of the favela were two members of a local association, created by Roncinha's inhabitants in order to give the chance to foreigneres to visit in the most "human" way the favela, and also creating opportunities for the locals in order to support themselves on their own.

The most surprising fact we run into was the pride of the favela's inhabitants and their instinct of aggregation and sympathy. As it was explained to us, in fact, despite the chance of leaving the favela some might have, actually only a few people do. The majority prefers to stay in the favela because of the spirit of aggregation and pride we said before. Moreover one also has to consider the difficulties and obstacles of moving out for someone who has always lived in a place like this.
The protection given by the favela itself balances the problems of living in it, though; it is for these reasons that the favela tries to grow again from its ashes by creating education opportunities and support institutions. It is on this optic that we believe that the best image of the favela is provided by all the great works hand-made by the mothers of the Kindergarden, all created by garbage, old tools and recycled items. We believe in fact that in order to achieve a great and complete rebirth of the favela, people living in it must not forget or deny their origins but build on them their future.

Valeria and Livia